U.S. should adhere to Taiwan Relations Act: former secretary of state

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Washington, Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said Wednesday that the United States should stick to the Taiwan Relations Act that guides its relations with Taiwan.

Albright made the comments at a hearing in the House Foreign Affairs Committee on the foreign policy of U.S. President Donald Trump's administration.

She said that she was working as a congressional liaison in the National Security Council when U.S.-China relations were normalized 40 years ago and she went to Taiwan before that occurred.

During that period, one of the major developments was the enactment of the Taiwan Relations Act that guides Taiwan-U.S. relations, Albright said, adding that it is a "very important piece of legislation" that should be maintained.

She was responding to U.S. Representative Steve Chabot, co-chair of the Congressional Taiwan Caucus (CTC) in the House of Representatives, who asked for her comments on Taiwan.

Chabot also noted that Chinese President Xi Jinping recently said he would not renounce the use of force to achieve unification with Taiwan and that China has been building military outposts in the South China Sea.

In response, Albright said that regarding the recent threat Beijing made against Taiwan, the U.S. needs to stand up for what is in the Taiwan Relations Act and make it very clear that its relationship with Taiwan is an important one.

"We would like to see some kind of peaceful way of dealing with our one China policy," she said. But "we cannot forget what our obligations are" under the TRA, she added.

The U.S. should think about what it can learn from China's behavior, Albright said, adding that she was concerned about the U.S.' current role in the world.

"I'd hate to see the U.S. withdraw from the international scene because of the Chinese filling the vacuum and to have Xi Jinping all of a sudden be the proponent of climate change and multilateralism," she said.

"We are the leader of the world. I believe in the U.S. leadership," Albright said, adding that the U.S. needs to figure out what is the right relationship with the Chinese as they are still a threat.

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